FX promises 'self-honest' eval on 'TUF: Live,' but series sticking to Fridays this fall

Ratings for “The Ultimate Fighter: Live,” the first ever season of the series to air on FX, have fallen to the lowest levels in the series’ history, but FX executive vice president Chuck Saftler insists there’s no reason to panic.

Sure, there are adjustments that need to be made to the long-running reality competition series, but both FX and the UFC are committed to the series and believe in its future viability.

And while many MMA pundits have pointed to the show’s Friday-night timeslot as a key reason for its ongoing ratings struggle, Saftler said the show will remain in its current timeslot for season 16, which airs this fall. The solution, the exec said, isn’t necessarily a day change.

“We’re going to stick with Friday nights for the fall season, and we do have a strong belief that Friday nights will in fact become quite successful for ‘The Ultimate Fighter,'” Saftler told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “We’ll also be very self-honest about the results that we see, and we will do what we do with all problems, which is constantly evaluate the results. If we don’t see these results get better, then we’re going to look at what other options are out there. But right now, we still have a strong belief that Friday night is a great night to watch this program and to experience the UFC much in the same way that Saturday night has grown into a fantastic night for the UFC, as well.”

Similar to UFC president Dana White’s promise to “fix” the series, Saftler believes there are changes that can boost the quality of the programming, which is still a bit of a work in progress as executive producer Craig Piligian and his Pilgrim Studios crew adjust to producing episodes on the fly rather than reflecting on months of taped content as done in seasons past.

Saftler discussed those opportunities and much more while talking to MMAjunkie.com. Here is the conversation:

MMAjunkie.com: This season of “The Ultimate Fighter” is obviously both the first edition of the series to air on your network, as well as the first-ever edition of the series to feature live content. In your opinion, how has the season played out vs. your expectations going into the debut?

Chuck Saftler: It’s played out, honestly, pretty perfectly. I think there was a really, really steep learning curve that went on with the new format and the new network. There was a lot of everybody getting used to each other. There was certainly trying to figure out how to do this show in a new way, which I think for the Pilgrim folks and for the UFC folks and for us was something we all had to spend a lot of time wrapping out head around. I think especially that first episode we did, which was the live 16-fight night, was definitely a very, very steep learning curve. But from the point episode No. 2 happened and on, this show has met my expectations creatively in a very big way. I think this show is playing out excellent from the standpoint of merging the pre-taped reality with the live elements quite nicely. That look back at the week that folds into the here-and-now moment has been quite excellent.

MMAjunkie.com: When you talk about that learning curve, where exactly have the challenges been?

Saftler: I think it really was a production learning curve, and it’s because there are so many things – look, with 14 seasons behind them, the folks at Pilgrim and Zuffa/UFC, they certainly had the best knowledge of what worked and what didn’t work and what elements of the show and characteristics of the show really stood out best for the viewers. I think that moving toward that live format, especially that live first episode that didn’t have the benefit of editing and time compression and a lot of the tricks that were used for a show what had been shot anywhere from three to six months prior. They had the ability to really tweak and work on those episodes and put a lot of time and focus into them. This episode was a live presentation, and the differences between this being a typical fight night that the UFC executes so well at this point and it being an episode of ‘The Ultimate Fighter,’ that’s where the learning curve really existed. Because again, you’re dealing with a bunch of fighters that most people don’t know.

This whole show is about moving fighters from the minor leagues to the major leagues. That first episode, they’re all minor leaguers. I think there was a learning curve in terms of the production, in terms of how the fights should look, in terms of the commentary that was being heard and whether we use an announcer. I think a lot of that was figured out in that first episode, and then it was applied remarkably well to the second episode and beyond when we got to the live elements of the episodes.

MMAjunkie.com: The ratings for this season have reached a series low. Dana White has contended that FX is content with the ratings for the time being. Is that an accurate assessment?

Saftler: It’s part of the learning curve, and it’s part of the execution of it. I think there are a number of challenges when it comes to ratings. What I’ve learned after a very, very long career is that when you have good product, you have to have patience. We’ve got to have patience with this property.

First off, there’s a learning curve for the audience from the standpoint of it’s moved to a new network, and that’s not helped very well by the fact that the previous network that this sat on continued to make noise and continued to create confusion and moved to the same night. We put the show on Friday night, and Spike decided that they were going to brand Friday night as ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ night for them with old episodes. That didn’t help in terms of us being able to be out there without a lot of white noise saying, ‘UFC is now on FX,’ especially as they had Kimbo Slice hosting live head-to-head with us in that first week.

You usually get one shot with your marketing to really say, ‘This is where you’re going to find this show,’ and it was complicated to do that because Spike kept making so much noise. In fact, Spike was making that noise right back to the moment they announced season 14 would be the last season of ‘The Ultimate Fighter.’ They weren’t saying the last season of ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ on Spike. They said, ‘It’s the last season of ‘The Ultimate Fighter.” So when you look at the fact that Spike was doing what they felt they needed to do to make their statements about their investment they had made in ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ to that point in time, you had that to create confusion with viewers. You had the fact that you also have an awful lot of competition now. You have Bellator out there making noise. You have Strikeforce that are making noise. You have ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ show making noise. You have ‘Fight Nights’ making noise. By the way, you have ‘Fight Nights’ on both FOX and FX. Between Showtime, Spike, MTV2, FOX Network and FX, it takes a little bit of time for the viewers to come to an understanding of where they’re going to find each property. That’s part of a patience curve that we have to have getting viewers to the show.
MMAjunkie.com: What about the challenge of the Friday-night timeslot? Some observers believe simply moving the show to different night could provide positive results. Is that a consideration?

Saftler: I think the way to look at it is this way: Saturday night is also a very difficult night, and the ratings for UFC product on a Saturday night are fantastic. In fact, when you look at the fact that’s where their ‘Fight Nights’ are, where their pay-per-views are, Saturday has not been a hinderance for the UFC. Friday night has very similar characteristics to Saturday night. They’re both nights that guys go out. So I think it’s about having the patience of getting people to understand where it is more than it being a bad night of the week. Because again, what we’ve seen with the four preliminaries that we’ve had for pay-per-views on Saturdays, we’ve seen each one grow over the other, and that’s part of that learning curve of where you’re going to find the preliminary fights on pay-per-view nights. Viewers are coming to understand that is on FX. We as a network look at Friday night as an opportunity. We still believe that there’s something there.

I do believe that some seasonality played into some of the ratings challenges that we’ve seen. We launched a spring season at the same time that Daylight Savings Time was kicking in. Spring breaks were kicking in. That does complicate Friday night, as well. But we are going to stick with Friday nights. We’re going to stick with Friday nights for the fall season, and we do have a strong belief that Friday nights will in fact become quite successful for ‘The Ultimate Fighter.’ We’ll also be very self-honest about the results that we see, and we will do what we do with all problems, which is constantly evaluate the results. If we don’t see these results get better, then we’re going to look at what other options are out there. But right now, we still have a strong belief that Friday night is a great night to watch this program and to experience the UFC much in the same way that Saturday night has grown into a fantastic night for the UFC, as well.

MMAjunkie.com: Dana White recently promised some changes to “The Ultimate Fighter” heading into the fall season. Can you address what the potential changes are at this point and what you hope to address?

Saftler: Honestly, nothing’s been locked in yet. I think we’re going to get through this season, and we’re going to do a really self-honest post-mortem on this season. That will involve Craig Piligian and his team. That will involve Dana and his team and us where we really break down what worked and what didn’t during the season. So I don’t think we’re at a place yet where we can definitely say what that is. I think we have some sense of what those things are, and we’re certainly going to look very, very hard at the kickoff episode for the fall. But right now, I don’t think the answers are firm. I will say that it could very well be similar to what the shows are that are working. It may become a hybrid of something that is in the very recent past, pre-taped with live elements. But I don’t think the live elements are going anywhere because they do work so nicely, and they do give a tremendous relevance to the show. I think when you know it’s happening then and there, it just makes the show that much more interesting and that much more timely and that much more compelling to have to see.

MMAjunkie.com: Some critics of “The Ultimate Fighter” say the show has simply run its course and is no longer viable programming. How do you address those opinions?

Saftler: They’re critics with an opinion. There are a lot of opinions. There are still people who are really enjoying the show and who will stand by it very firmly. There are some people who are finding the show for the first time, and there are some people who want to find issue with it. You’re going to find that with every show. You’re going to find those critics that exist with the sport, itself.

Look, it’s great when dialogue happens. It’s great when people talk about a show, both positive and negative because it means they’re thinking about it. Hopefully what we can do is in our partnership with Pilgrim and Zuffa/UFC is give fans and critics a reason to take a second look and re-evaluate and to find new ideas and new concepts and new creatives that bring them back in each season. I still believe there is a lot of relevance to the show, and I believe that as long as you’re an MMA fan, you’re always going to want to find who’s going to be the next talent and who’s going to be the next talent you’re going to be rooting for. There’s no better platform for that than ‘The Ultimate Fighter.’

MMAjunkie.com: You’ve got just a few weeks left on the first season of “The Ultimate Fighter” to air on FX. What are your overall thoughts after this debut edition?

Saftler: I’ve got to tell you that from the network standpoint, we couldn’t feel that we have better partners, more self-honest partners. The one thing that I really tremendously appreciate about Dana and about Lorenzo Fertitta and Craig Borsari and Craig Piligian’s team is that everybody is very, very self-honest about the product, and everybody has the best intentions to continue to make this product the best it can be, let alone if it needs reinvention to look at that. No one is holding onto sacred cows, and I’ve got tell you that they are just phenomenal, phenomenal partners to be in business with. I have great hope for the future because when you’re working with people that are that creative and that savvy and that honest, only good things can come from it.

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